# 'Passed'; not 'died' **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 3, 2013, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276 "2013-08-03T21:30:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/21 "2013-08-03T23:57:17Z")
No one for, “pining for the fjords”? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/22 "2013-08-04T00:26:32Z")
“Passed” is bad, but it’s better than “transition.” ---
**Author:** ![the\_O](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@the\_O](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_O)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/23 "2013-08-04T01:21:32Z")
Medical doctors are great at “euphemisms.” “You’ll feel some discomfort,” they’ll say, instead of, “This is going to hurt.” ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/24 "2013-08-04T01:27:34Z")
George Carlin should get the assist in this thread… ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/25 "2013-08-04T01:44:31Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > George Carlin should get the assist in this thread… Isn’t he dead? > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I urinate and defecate. And I don’t ask where the bathroom is. I ask where the toilet is. Whoa, something die in there?:eek: ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/26 "2013-08-04T02:07:31Z")
I say “died”. But I don’t like “dead.” ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/27 "2013-08-04T02:11:49Z")
[According to Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/573/why-do-we-call-it-the-bathroom-even-when-it-has-no-tub) > [@](#): > > Curiously, however, there is no “real” word for the place where one deposits one’s bodily wastes. ---
**Author:** ![urban1a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47c2d/32.png) [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/28 "2013-08-04T02:17:16Z")
When my mother died, the nursing home called me and informed me that she had **expired**. I had never heard that term referring to death before and it took me a bit to figure out just what I was being told. I guess I could have responded that I didn’t know she had an expiration date. I have noticed an attempt to rewrite delivering the bad news back in time recently. On some program, which had a scene in the past (50s or 60s), a person was told that their relative/friend had passed. No one ever used that term then. Bob ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/29 "2013-08-04T02:26:26Z")
Yes, it is very hard for some people to say “died”. A LOT of people in western society find death absolutely unbearable to think about and try to live in a state of denial. It is very common that when someone is terminally ill, some of their friends will just disappear and have nothing to do with the person because some people just freak out at having to face the reality that death happens. I remember participating in a Pit thread on that subject at one point where I expressed the view that anyone who isn’t around for a terminally ill loved one is a shitty human being, and some people on here insisted that it was totally justified to not see your dying loved one if it’s too hard for you. I do think that it is unhealthy to deny the reality of death. I definitely don’t look forward to death, but I have witnessed enough death in my personal life as well as taking care of dying people in my job that I have accepted it is a part of life unfortunately. I would like to think that it has helped me to live a full life. Sometimes I see how people are wasting their lives (not just professionally, but also in doing things like staying in a horrible relationship for years or so on) and sometimes I want to say to them, “Don’t you UNDERSTAND that this life is IT? This is your ONE chance”. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/30 "2013-08-04T02:36:11Z")
> [@Recusant](#): > > For the same reasons you ‘urinate’ and ‘defecate’ instead of engaging in activities rhyming with ‘missing’ and ‘hitting’ (I have precious little squeamishness myself, but forum rules are forum rules) Only in The Fainting Couch (long closed, fortunately) could you not say pissing and shitting. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/31 "2013-08-04T03:52:44Z")
I think this may be more of a US thing. In Britain, at least, it’s commonplace to say that someone has died. Some (older?) people may say that they have lost a loved one but that’s the only euphemism I’m used to hearing. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/32 "2013-08-04T04:19:38Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Only in The Fainting Couch (long closed, fortunately) could you not say pissing and shitting. 10/10 Thank you for the hearty laugh, friend. 🙂 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/33 "2013-08-04T04:28:01Z")
I agree, “passed” is ridiculous (“She passed her boards? Fabulous!”). Using straightforward language shouldn’t be so difficult. \*‘E’s not pinin’! 'E’s passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E’s expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed 'im to the perch 'e’d be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E’s off the twig! 'E’s kicked the bucket, 'e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!"\* > [@the O](#): > > Medical doctors are great at “euphemisms.” “You’ll feel some discomfort,” they’ll say, instead of, “This is going to hurt.” That’s one of my pet peeves (and it takes a lot these days to keep a peeve fed and cared for). Discomfort is when your underwear ride up on you. Pain is what medical procedures cause. Sugarcoating it just makes you look clueless or deceptive, even if the intent is to minimize discomfort at causing another person unavoidable pain. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/34 "2013-08-04T04:43:14Z")
After some consideration, I’ve come to the conclusion that the sentence “X died” sounds both too blunt and incomplete as a sentence all its own (it’s not, but that’s how my ear/mind reacts). By contrast, “X passed away” sounds more like a complete sentence. But that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/35 "2013-08-04T04:56:28Z")
“Lost” is especially annoying. As though you lost your keys or something. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/36 "2013-08-04T05:12:31Z")
> [@DummyGladHands](#): > > “Lost” is especially annoying… As is “late” (as in “the late Arthur Dent”). They’re not late; they’re _dead_. They havent’t missed their bus; they’ve caught their last bus and won’t be getting out of it in this world. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/37 "2013-08-04T11:59:47Z")
I hear a similar arguement at an archery bow hunting site I frequent. Some hunters use the term harvest game while others feel it is sugar coating the fact that you killed your game. I feel like harvest is a more complete term in that we used what we killed. ---
**Author:** ![JuliaSqueezer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@JuliaSqueezer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JuliaSqueezer)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/38 "2013-08-04T15:05:38Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > “Smartsized.” > “Decruited.” > “Streamlined.” > “Given time to pursue other opportunities.” > “Last observed in the parking lot, carrying their belongings in a cardboard box.” I worked for 3 decades for a largish company (8,000 employees statewide) known for its radical swings in leadership and constant flux. Instability seemed to be the mantra of its ever-changing board of directors, and it never made much sense. This crazy place sometimes reached periods of sweet middle ground, but most often was in the process of hiring masses of people or getting rid of hundreds in huge, sweeping, dramatic flourishes. Their best phrase in the time I worked there was “deselection”. As in “We selected you 20 years ago; now we’ve changed our minds and you are deselected.” ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/39 "2013-08-04T15:12:00Z")
I prefer to take euphemisms to the extreme, as in, “_He’s taken out a mortgage on a tract of agricultural property_.” ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276/40 "2013-08-04T15:14:35Z")
The euphemism for death that I don’t like is “went to sleep.” Umm, most people do that every day. Also, I once saw toilet paper being called “bath tissue” in an ad. Not even “bathroom tissue” - “bath tissue.” Come on. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone using toilet paper for anything while taking a bath. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passed-not-died/665276.md?page=3)